June 14, 2018

Heads, Tails

To do it, they spend a lot of money on security - one rancher spends $2 million a year on that alone.

Private armies, surveillance, even a helicopter. They go pretty full-bore to protect the animals from poachers.

John Hume started with one rhino 25 ago. Now, he's got more than 1,500, the largest private herd in the world.

He has them dehorned, making them less attractive to poachers. Rhino horn's made of keratin, just like your fingernails and toenails, but in areas like Vietnam and China, the horn is prized as a folk remedy for hangovers and a way to increase virility. Ground into powder it can be worth more by the ounce than gold. John has six tons of rhino horn at his site, likely worth around $10 million to the Asians.

And unlike the poachers, who kill the animal solely for its horn, John's dehorned rhinos are doing well - in fact, they're reproducing at a faster rate than in the wild.